160 - Not-So Wordless Wednesday

Well, I was going to post another picture from my vacation, and only a few words, but Tuesday night, I attended the wake of another good friend of mine that was taken before his time. His name was Joe, and he, I and his cousin Nick were great friends from around 15 through our mid 20's. Joe and I bought our first Corvettes near the same time, and also our first motorcycles around the same time. We hung our a lot, and I got to know his family well.

Joe's dad owned a sand & gravel company, and Joe had worked there from when he was very young. Nick also worked there and one summer, when I was out of work, Joe's dad told me, and I quote "Champ, Joey tells me you don't have a job. Get your ass to the pit tomorrow at 8am, I have a job for you". Joe's dad was a real nice guy, though he sounded very "gruff". I've seen Joe all summer, at just about every other one of our Saturday cruise nights, as Joe loved classic cars as I do. We always sat together and talked, mostly about the fun we had as kids, sometimes about the cool cars or his collection of motorcycles. He was always asking me to take one of his bikes for a ride. A Suzuki Hayabusa Turbo. The only motorcycle on earth to scare me, and he owned one. I never got nor will I get the chance.

A few years ago, Joe was diagnosed with diabetes, and I believed from what he told me that he  had it under control. As I understand it, for the past few weeks, Joe has had pain in his legs, and didn't want to go to the doctors. It was so bad, that by last Friday, he finally went to the hospital where they found he had a massive infection throughout his body, and it had entered his organs.

Joe was gone by Saturday morning. He was 50.

Back to the vacation. The picture above was taken looking out the door, across the street from Los Cinco Soles, in Cozumel Mexico. You can see just how beautiful the water is there.

In Cozumel, we shopped, tasted Tequila and had a great lunch at Las Palmeras, a restaurant right across the street from the water, just like the picture above.
That's all I feel like posting for today.

Have a wonderful Hump-Day....